Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The Taking of Padua

Antonio Guardi
1699-1760

The Taking of Padua

21 1/4 x 30 3/8 inches (545 x 765 mm)
Pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk, on laid paper.
1969.5

Purchased on the Fellows Fund.

Notes
The elder brother of the more famous Francesco, Giovanni Antonio Guardi was a painter of religious, historical, mythological, and allegorical subjects. The flickering brushwork and dissolution of form that distinguish his paintings relate to the spirited handling of the pen and free application of wash in this drawing. The sheet belongs to a series of at least fifty- eight sketches depicting scenes from Venetian history. Most are based on earlier compositions; the Morgan's drawing derives from a painting of the same subject in the Palazzo Ducale, Venice, by Francesco Bassano (1549-1592). --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
For discussion of this drawing, see William Barcham, "The Issue of Copies: Three Drawings by Giannantonio Guardi in New York," Artibus et Historiae 83/XLII (2021).
Inscriptions/Markings
Watermark: large trefoil, letters A C.
Numbered on verso, in an old hand, in pen and black ink, "13".
Associated names
Bassano, Francesco da Ponte, 1549-1592, Copy after.
Morosini-Gatterburg, former owner.
Veneto, Mogliano, former owner.
Davis, Richard S., 1917-1985, former owner.
Bibliography
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Sixteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969-1971. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, p. 114.
Stampfle, Felice, and Jacob Bean. Drawings from New York collections. III: The eighteenth century in Italy. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1971, no. 166, repr.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department